This is my last time, your last chance
by Angel Kato
Summary: Naruto wants to die. He wants to cut himself away from this world and have no one remember him. But what happens when the most popular raven haired guy suddenly wants to befriend our blond introvert?
1. Chapter 1

It was a cloudy moonless night. The clouds hung heavily in the sky, looking like they were carrying a burden. The patches of sky looked like blue ink. It wasn't very dark, though, in the city. The dull glow below annoyed the eyes.

Naruto Uzumaki sighed when he saw the sky. He was hoping for a full moon tonight – his last night. Why couldn't God do this one little favor for him? It wasn't like he was asking for much, just a full moon shining against a starry night. But no. Of course tonight was so cloudy that no moonshine shone through. Of course tonight of all nights.

Well, if this was God's attempt to stop him, then God can forget it. This was going to happen, nothing could stop Naruto. He looked over at the small wooden table where his blade laid. He saw the glob of slivery light that sat on the knife's spine. He picked up the knife and held it close to his chest.

A fat drop of water landed on his hand. How mildly surprising, he thought. I'm crying. He wasn't too sure why he was crying. Was it from relief and happiness? Did he feel freedom was soon to come to him?

Or was it because he was scared?

He shook his head. Keep thoughts away, he told himself.

Lifting the knife to his pale wrists, he sucked in a final breath. He positioned it so the blade would cut vertically. He started to press in deeply; a point of blood appeared…..

With a clank, Naruto dropped the knife. His fingers trembled and shook. He was afraid! He yelled out angrily.

Tears started to pour out of his light blue eyes. He slid down the wall and curled up in a ball.

"Fuck…..fuck…fuck…..FUCK!"

He grabbed the knife that lay a bit away from him and slashed at his right wrist horizontally. The blood shot out of the line he made, crying red tears. The anger drained out of him along with the blood. When the cut clotted, Naruto felt at peace.

But even at peace, Naruto kept crying.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day.

Naruto got to his homeroom. He got the worst possible homeroom, in his opinion anyways. Naruto was an unpleasant antisocialist at best, but this class made him want to go the darkest deepest cave in the middle of the ocean and live there for the rest of his life.

All of the loud bitchy sluts with their long hair and high arching eyebrow, the jocks with their prep gear, and the obnoxious extroverts were all gathered in this first period. Everyday he could hear their whoops and laughter and chattering from down the hall and he could swear that sometimes he could hear them from downstairs. He popped another aspirin in his mouth.

He sat down in his seat next to a raven coloured hair boy named Sasuke Uchiha. Now Sasuke was one of the more popular extroverts in the school. He was friends with basically everyone, was involved in plays and school activities and all the girls loved him and yada yada yada. He also had a pretty girlfriend but they split a couple of weeks ago. There was actually a rumor going around that he left her for someone else.

Naruto didn't mind him so much, surprisingly. I mean sure he got slightly annoying when he would be loud but he didn't hold it against him. He may in fact like him a little…

Naruto scolded himself for thinking this. _No emotional connections. It will only mess you up. And besides, he's a dude. Even if something were to spark, it would still be wrong. _But he couldn't help his fascination with Sasuke and his confidence. Naruto wondered where he got it from.

"…ell me, Sasuke. Why'd you leave Ino?" the loud nasal drawl of the slut sitting next to Sasuke penetrated Naruto's ears unpleasantly.

"That's my business. I would appreciate if people would stop asking me," he said with a smile. He seemed so pleasant that you did almost want to leave him alone. But the sluts have the power of persistence. So she pressed on;

"You didn't leave her someone else, did you?"

"No." Naruto noticed from the slight twitch of Sasuke's right hand that he was lying. That's a very interesting lie.

She looked dissatisfied with this answer but she finally let him alone to go scream excitedly at a girl across the room. Naruto exasperatedly sighed. "Don't these girls ever shut their mouths? It's not that hard," he murmured to himself.

"Tell me about it."

It took Naruto a second to register that Sasuke Uchiha might actually be trying to talk to _him._

"Excuse me?" Naruto said, a bit unsure that he heard right. Was the most popular extrovert really talking to him, the most unpopular introvert?

"I said, tell me about it. All these girls want to do is talk and stick their noses into other people's business and mess things up for their amusement," he said.

Naruto blinked a bit surprised. "…Yeah…" He started turning away, expecting the conversation to be done.

"Yeah the noise is always so loud. I'm surprised that teachers don't complain about it. Well, no I'm not. The teachers here are lazy and condone this type of behavior. But still, I don't understand how they could cope with this noise. I myself would like to pop a few pills."

Naruto looked back at Sasuke, who was grinning slyly.

"Um…pills? I…I don't take any…," sputtered Naruto, a little astonished he would notice that.

"You're not going to tell me those were candies, are you?"

"…Just aspirin…"

At this, Sasuke laughed. He reached over and patted Naruto's yellow hair. Naruto jumped.

"I am not a dog! Don't pat my on the head!" He growled. Not because he was angry, really, but more to cover up his embarrassment of this whole thing.

Sasuke grinned even wider and said, "No, of course you aren't," in a voice that implied that yes, he actually did think that. Naruto couldn't help but think of how white his teeth were and how great he looked when he smiled.

"Whatever." Naruto was done. He had to stop this before it started. He couldn't let any connections form… He looked away from Sasuke and onto the ground as his way of saying stop talking to me.

"Oh come one. Don't be a sour puss." _Sour puss? Who says "sour puss" anymore?_ Naruto didn't reply. Sasuke put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, making Naruto tingle where he touched the skin.

He jerked out of Sasuke's reach.

"Don't…don't touch me…," he looked away, face burning. Sasuke didn't seem to get it or, or maybe it was just teasing, because he reached over and grabbed Naruto's hand. He examined it over, looking at every detail. Naruto blushed a deep red and tried desperately to take his hand back but it seems Sasuke was stronger than him. So eventually, Naruto just gave up and allowed himself to indulge a little by letting Sasuke touch him.


	3. Chapter 3

_Author Note: After I wrote this I thought this would make more sense if it were part of the second chapter…..oh well. _

When the slut sitting on the other side of Sasuke looked back at him, she saw the dark haired hunk touching the quiet and weird blonde. The blonde had his eyes closed and an almost smile on his face. She couldn't see Sasuke's face but she could imagine it was of cruel taunting.

The girl whispered to the person next to her, "What a faggot. Look at the look on Naruto's face."

The two of them snickered at him. Soon the whole class was snickering and sneering and staring.

"What a loser!"

"Sasuke is just toying with him. He's such a fag for enjoying it."

Naruto squirmed under the stares. _Faggot...?_ He'd never heard that directed at him.

He pulled his hand back from Sasuke and bolted out of the classroom into the bathroom.

After cutting, he felt a little better but it still bugged him. Then he thought that it did not matter what they said, he'd be dead soon enough. So with this thought in mind he went back to his classroom.

When he came in everyone looked at him but not with cruelty. Instead they had a mix of shame and reluctance on their faces. Something's up, he thought. Maybe a trick or something. Well I can handle one more, it won't hurt that much. And it won't matter soon enough. One little thing isn't that big of a deal.

He sat down in his seat again.

A girl came up to him.

"Uh…sorry for calling you a fag…" she said, a bit timidly and he saw her eyes glance at Sasuke. Soon enough everyone got up and apologized to Naruto, who was shocked beyond anything.

_What…what the hell? What happened when I went to the bathroom?_

He never noticed the quiet glare Sasuke was giving everyone.


	4. Chapter 4

At lunch, Naruto swiftly went to the cafeteria and bought a bottle of water. He never really ate. He wasn't ever really hungry. He proceeded across the large plaza and past the huge building where everyone ate, except for a handful of people who ate out at the table in front of the cafe. He finally stopped in front of a large square planter that were near enough to the building where Naruto could eat and not get yelled at by a teacher but far enough were the noise went with the wind in the opposite direction. There, he ate in peace and quiet and was able to think. This was his favorite time of the school day. He leaned against the tree to begin his meditative part of the day.

But then something came up.

"Hey, Naruto," Sasuke's voice made Naruto jump.

"My God!" Naruto put pressure on his heart, surprise making it run fast. _But was it really the surprise? It could be Sasuke himself_, a sly little voice in his heart said. Naruto pressed harder against the annoyance. "What the hell do you want?" he asked with a bit of a snarl.

"Where are you eating?"

Naruto looked at Sasuke like "You know I thought you were at least not a nitwit. I have lost all respect for you."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, smiling. "Over here? Not today." He grabbed the blonde's elbow and pulled him towards the tables, the blonde flailing about and yelling, "What the fuck? Let me go!"

To Naruto's amazement, there were not a multitude of people hanging around where Sasuke was taking him. Instead, there were only two people there: a short pink haired girl who Naruto wasn't sure the name of, Sakura maybe, and a boy with large bushy eyebrows and a bowl hair cut. Naruto had no idea who this kid was. He'd never seen him and if he had, he would have remembered those black caterpillars eating the guy's face as if it were a leaf.

"Hello there, good sir!" the bushy eyebrowed one said, well, more screamed. The energy practically knocked Naruto back.

"Hey," pink hair said politely.

Naruto gave them a half salute half wave and told them his name.

"We know who you are!" bowl cut said excitedly, "Sasuke talks about you all the time! Ow!" Sakura had slapped the back of his head. "But he does! Like all the tim-!"

Sakura hissed at dogbrows to shut up, stupid, putting her hand over his mouth. Naruto looked over at Sasuke to see how he reacted. Sasuke was glaring murderously at bowl cut.

"….Excuse me?" Naruto hesitantly said.

"Nothing!" Sakura said. Bowl cut looked like his head was getting crushed by her grip. Naruto felt sorry for bowl cut and wanted to help him, but wasn't quite sure how. He decided to at least try, not wanting to see any death besides his own.

"Um…Sakura?" He prayed that was the right name. "You should be gently with him…You look like you're about to..." the last of his sentence was drowned by Sakura's screech.

"YOU LICKED ME!" she screamed. Bowl cut winked at her and she exploded with fury.

"Sakura," Sasuke said calmly to her, deciding to step in, "I have to get some books from my locker. Come with me."

"But!"

"Now," he said quite coolly. Sakura quieted and nodded. With a final icy glace towards bowl cut, they left, leaving Naruto with the annoying kid, who was grinning from ear to ear. It was as if that whole fiasco never happened. Naruto, on the other hand, was absolutely horrified. _Is this how friends behave with each other? It's pretty violent_. If it was, he wouldn't have any friends. He was too scared now.

"That was…kind of mean of Sakura to explode like that…" and he wasn't even going to mention that look Sasuke kept giving eyebrows. It solidified that Sasuke could actually…No. He wouldn't. He couldn't. Naruto scratched at his right arm, specifically at his cuts. Maybe he should go and relax himself...

"I'm Lee, if you didn't know. Rock Lee," Eyebrows said. "I kinda deserved what happened back there. Sasuke likes to keep his true feelings under wraps."

"What do you mean?" Naruto began to feel intrigued even more so.

"Well, he does talk about you a lot, for about a few months or so."

"What does he say?"

Lee grinned really big. "Nice stuff. But I don't know, are you into that sort of stuff?"

"What sort of stuff?" Naruto said slowly, half knowing what Lee meant.

"You know…" he bumped two pointed index fingers together, "as opposed to" he joined one of his index fingers with its thumb and put the other index through the circle he made.

Naruto coughed with embarrassment. "Why would you think I would like that?" he said a little too defensively. Lee grinned. "Whatever!" Naruto stormed away to the bathroom and, making sure he was the only kid there, he locked the bathroom door. He sat next to the door and reached for his razor.

Nice stuff, Lee had said. Sasuke says nice stuff about him. And that gesture Lee had made…he was talking about being gay. Did he like it? Naruto didn't want to deal with that. He slashed his scar covered wrist three times.

The door rattled next to Naruto, who immediately jumped to his feet and stared at the door waiting to hear the clank of keys and the janitor coming in and seeing the blood.

_Fuck Fuck FUCK! _


	5. Chapter 5

_A short little transition chapter. I apologize to the people who wanted a longer chapter, that ain't happening with this chapter. Pray or hope for the next chapter to be long, maybe your thoughts and hopes will motivate me! :3 Love you strangers_

* * *

Naruto ran over to the sink and got paper towels, slapped them on his cuts and forced his sleeve over them.

"Hello? Naruto?" Sasuke. It was the voice that made his heart leap even higher, tripping on excitement and fear. Naruto kept silent. "I know you're in there. Please unlock the damn door. I can unlock it without the keys." Sasuke rattle it more threateningly. Naruto took a deep breath and unlocked the door.

"Where are the others?" Naruto asked quickly, glancing at his arm every once in a while to check if the blood bled through. "Why are you even here?"

"I just wanted to check on you. You kinda ditched us. Not very nice."

Naruto looked away, his heart beating excitedly at the thought of Sasuke actually caring about him. He pinched himself to get that thought out. _I told you!_ The voice in his head hissed angrily _No emotional connections. This is bad. Break it off now. You are going to die soon and that's final. We had a fucking plan! Cut yourself away with no memories of you left._ "Why would you care? You don't care."

"How would you know?"

Naruto looked slowly up at Sasuke, who was looking at him intensely and seriously. "I….I can't believe you…." He whispered. A flash of annoyance went passed Sasuke's face. _You only have a few more days. Don't you dare make friends now. _"…How do you care about me? As a friend?"

"Yeah. As a friend. I want us to be friends." Naruto didn't dare look at Sasuke's hand to see if it twitched or not. If it went either way, his heart would sink to the bottom of the ocean. Sasuke's voice seemed genuine enough and Naruto would believe him, even if the voice in his heart desperately wished it otherwise.

"…"

"Be my friend, Naruto." Sasuke sounded so sure, like he really knew what he was getting into, like he wasn't embarrassed to be friends with him. Naruto was scared, though, about everything. He'd never really had a friend. He didn't want to let someone in only to have them trample everything. What if he found out about his cutting? Even if he never found out about the cutting, hanging out with Naruto would probably would be the worst mistake Sasuke could make for his social life.

And what if he stopped him from killing himself? But...what if he didn't?

_Only one way to find out_, the voice in his heart told him. With a deep sigh, he ignored the angry threatening voice in his head and followed his heart.

"Okay…I'll be your friend…if it matters that much to you…"

Sasuke's annoyance went away and he grinned at Naruto. Naruto told the voice in his head that this feeling was nothing, this wasn't love, he swore. This isn't love...


	6. Chapter 6

A few days later.

Naruto decided he didn't mind these guys, Sasuke's lunch group. He learned Sakura and Lee were Sasuke's very closest friends, but they weren't really popular so when they tried to talk to him during class, the other populars would hiss and throw things at them. They treated the two pretty badly, Sasuke said out of pure jealousy. Sakura told Naruto not to talk much to Sasuke outside lunch and outside of school, these guys could be vicious. Naruto had firsthand experience of that brutality so he took her advice, for the most part. The only thing that violated that was that in homeroom, Naruto started saying hey to Sasuke when he sat down. It was nothing though. Everyone said hello to Sasuke. He was safe.

Naruto also started walking with Sakura down to the bus station where she took the bus home. He liked talking to her, but that fear of her was still in his heart.

"You know, Naruto," Sakura started, "I want to be a ninja."

"A ninja?" The funny ideas that go through this girl's head, Naruto thought to himself. "And pray tell, what would we do as ninjas?"

"Well, me you and Sasuke would all be a team, and Lee would be our friend but on a different ninja team." And so she went on about the dynamics of this made up ninja world and how everything would be. He couldn't help but laugh at it all.

"I will one day become a master ninja and beat you up for laughing at me!" Sakura squealed.

"You don't need to be a ninja in order to hurt me..." he muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing! You're beautiful!"

"Mm-hmm." At this point Sakura's bus had come and she waved goodbye to him. Naruto stopped to watch the bus go spouting the murky dust and then went on his way. He strolled down the maze of alleys he went through to get home: right, left, straight, left, right, right, straight, left. The walls he went past were all dark with muck and dirt and covered with a slightly off colour covering some old graffiti. As he got closer to his house, there wasn't any cover up of graffiti and there was more trash scattered around.

From an alley to the right of him while he was at the second place where he was to turn left, two guys and a couple of girls appeared. Naruto glanced at them, then looked away, hoping that if he didn't look at them, they wouldn't bother him.

"Hey, fag," one of the boys said. Naruto tried to get past them, but they blocked his ways of escape. He replied with silence.

"You've been hanging out with Sasuke lately, huh? Ever since he touched your hand in homeroom. You fucking fag!" one of the girls got close to him and getting in his face. Naruto took a few frightened steps back, "You know he was just fucking playing with you! You make me sick, you twisted little bastard! Die! Die!"

"Die, you faggot!"

"You don't belong here! Leave Sasuke alone! He HATES YOU!"

"Dick head, motherfucking fag!"

They kept getting angrier and angrier, their insults burned into Naruto's heart, ever single word branded into him. As they screamed names at him they stepped closer and closer in, trapping Naruto more and more until they were on top of him.

_This is what happens when you make connections with such a handsome little boy,_ the nasty voice in his head spat. One of the boys knocked his book bag out of his hands. A little girly fist punched his spine and the other girl slammed her fist hard up his stomach. Naruto coughed and fell to his knees. Someone kicked his ass, making Naruto fall forward on his face. "Fuck…get off me…" he whimpered. A large weight of a foot stomped on his head, forcing his face deep into the gravel, putting enough pressure on his nose to make it bleed. Naruto cried out in pain and started crying which mixed with the blood.

"Hey! What the fuck are you guys doing?"

That voice…it couldn't be…He wouldn't be here…The kick to the head made him crazy…

He heard the sounds of people running away and a single pair of feet walking close to him. Slowly he got turned over and he saw him.

"Jesus, Naruto. What the hell did you do?" Sasuke said, taking off his shirt and revealing a lean fit body that shone like a Greek god. Naruto took a shaky deep breath. "You must be in a lot of pain…don't breath so deeply, it'll hurt," Sasuke warned. He wiped the nose bleed and dirt off his face. "…I'm really sorry about this. I know this was about me. I thought they wouldn't bother you…I guess I was wrong."

_Oh Sasuke…I would do anything to be near you, even get beat up everyday so that you may come rescue me like a knight in shining armor…_ the voice in his heart sighed and quivered with utter happiness.

Sasuke's face was suddenly getting closer as he leaned in. Naruto's chest rose faster up and down as he panicked. The hyperventilation made him cough. "You sound awful…I'll take you to the hospital." Sasuke helped Naruto get up on his feet and started dragging him to the hospital before Naruto realized that if he went to the hospital they might see his wrist. They may tell Sasuke. He saw Sasuke's disappointed face and saw him mouth the words, "I thought better of you."

"NO!" Sasuke glanced at Naruto astonished. "I'm fine," Naruto said firmly, "Just take me home and I'll take care of myself. Please, no hospital…"

"But it would be better if I took you there." Sasuke started taking him in that direction again.

"Please please!" he squirmed away from Sasuke and ran to the safety of his house, leaving Sasuke alone in the alley. Weakly Naruto made it up the stair and when he got inside, he collapsed on the ground right behind the close door. In a few seconds, he passed out from the sheer pain that was forcing his head to pulsate in time with his heart beat.


End file.
